Quick & Rich Mini Chocolate Truffle Cakes
Easy and incredibly rich, this recipe for mini chocolate truffle cakes is a cross between a truffle and a brownie and is always a crowd pleaser. They’re perfect with coffee or tea or a glass of milk.
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I love making these mini cakes with a chocolate truffle texture – not only are they incredibly easy, they are deliciously rich.
They hover between a brownie and truffle – chocolatey and moist on the inside with just a bit of crisp on the outside.
And yet they are not so sweet that they overpower the chocolate flavor. They use just a small amount of added sugar to enhance the melted dark chocolates.
Wow, I’m making my mouth water just describing them!
Since they are so rich, when I adapted them from this recipe I made them in mini muffin tins which I think make the perfect size to go with a cup of coffee or tea – and they more easily feed a crowd.
Of course I generally like to make portions smaller anyway, but this dessert really lends itself to a smaller two-to-three-bite size – because believe me, they are rich.
Mini Chocolate Truffle Cakes Recipe
Ingredients Needed
You’ll need just eight (mostly) pantry ingredients to make these mouthwatering chocolate truffle cakes – we love simple real food like this, don’t we?
- Butter
- Bittersweet chocolate – chips or chopped chocolate
- Semisweet chocolate – chips or chopped chocolate
- Sugar – I prefer regular fine sugar in this recipe
- Eggs
- Flour – it’s just a tablespoon so any flour will work (I have used whole wheat pastry flour, spelt, and fine-ground almond flour.)
- Sea salt
- Instant espresso powder – optional, but really amps up the chocolate flavor
- Plus cocoa powder for dusting the pans
A trick I learned long ago for dusting pans when making chocolate cakes is to dust with cocoa powder instead of flour, so there’s no white residue after baking (plus, added chocolate flavor!).
Easy Ingredient Swaps
- Dairy free option: you can use coconut oil in place of the butter – a commenter tried it successfully. The flavor will be different, of course, but the texture should be similar.
- Gluten free option: use almond flour or any 1:1 flour.
- Chocolate: if you only have one kind of chocolate you can just use that (I like the depth of chocolate flavors with the two types of chocolate, but it’s subtle).
- Sugar: you can use a courser cane sugar or even coconut sugar, but the best texture comes from using a fine ground sugar like C&H.
Instructions
- Preheat oven, grease mini muffin tins and dust with cocoa powder.
- Melt chocolates, butter, and part of the sugar in the microwave or in a double boiler until smooth. Let cool 5 minutes.
- In the bowl of a food processor add the eggs, remaining sugar, flour and espresso powder. Process for 2 minutes.
- Add melted chocolate mixture in 4 additions, pulsing after each – you will have a thick batter.
Use a small cookie scoop (tablespoon) to evenly divide dough into prepared muffin tins, leveling the tops as needed (they won’t level on their own).
Bake for about 10 minutes until the tops are crackly like a brownie. Let cool a few minutes in the pans and then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.
Mini Chocolate Truffle Cakes FAQs
Sadly in my experience, no. When I tried it with a mixer they were crumbly and the tops didn’t have the brownie-like texture.
Regular chocolate cake is lighter and spongier than a truffle cake. Truffle cakes have a dense, moist crumb that is reminiscent of a pure chocolate candy truffle.
You can use basic tablespoon size mini muffin tins for this recipe. In the photos I use vintage mini tins that are slightly bigger and use 1-1/2 to 2 tablespoons of dough. If you have different sized pans, you can adjust your scoop, adding more or less as needed.
You can even use regular sized muffin tins if you’d like – this recipe will make six and they will need to be baked for 18-20 minutes.
Tips for Storing Truffle Cakes
- Cool the cakes completely on the racks.
- Transfer to airtight containers at room temperature for 2-3 days or refrigerate for up to a week.
- They freeze great for longer storage: place in airtight freezer containers and freeze 3-4 months.
These luscious bite-sized cakes actually get better and fudgier the second day, so they are a great make-ahead option to bring to gatherings and parties.
Have I convinced you yet that you need to make a batch of mini chocolate truffle cakes?
Recommended Tools Used In This Recipe
Don’t forget to check out all of my favorite kitchen essentials.
More Chocolate Recipes You’ll Love
- Dark Chocolate Coconut Clusters – Low Sugar & Just 3 Ingredients
- Quadruple Chocolate Decadent Brownie Recipe
- Fudgy Espresso Truffle Bars Recipe
- Flourless Chocolate Truffle Cookies {Grain-Free, Dairy-Free}
I hope you love these delicious rich mini chocolate truffle cakes – if you make them, please leave a rating and a comment letting me know, I’d be so thankful!
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Quick & Rich Mini Chocolate Truffle Cakes
Equipment
- Food Processor
- Mini Muffin Tins
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Use a pastry brush to grease 24 mini-sized muffin cups with softened butter. Dust with cocoa powder and tap out excess.
- Melt both chocolates, butter and 1 tablespoon of the sugar for 1 minute in the microwave (or heat over a pot of simmering water) and then whisk until smooth. Let stand until it cools and thickens slightly, about 5 minutes.
- Add eggs, remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar, the flour and espresso powder to the bowl of a food processor and process for about 2 minutes. Add chocolate mixture in four additions, pulsing after each until combined (it is a thick batter).
- Use a small cookie scoop (about a tablespoon) to add dough into prepared muffin cups, leveling the tops with the back as needed (they won't flatten as they bake)
- Bake for 10 minutes. Cool in pans 5 minutes before turning out onto cooling racks to cool completely.
Notes
- Transfer to airtight containers at room temperature for 2-3 days or refrigerate for up to a week.
- These freeze great for longer storage: place in airtight freezer containers and freeze 3-4 months.
Nutrition
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Hi Jami,
Could you please clarify the chocolate amounts? E.g. in cups, if I were to use all chocolate chips, or perhaps in squares for baking chocolate? 14 total ounces of chocolate by weight in either baking bar form or chocolate chips is a really large amount, and using ounces in my nutrition calculator gives figures that are double or triple what you have shown. So I must not be understanding the correct amount of chocolate! 🙂
Thank you!
Hi Amy! These are a truffle, so it’s mostly chocolate – and ounces is the best way to measure (if your bag of chocolate chips is 10 ounces, you can use the whole bag) and they are correct amounts.
I also recalculated the nutrition and for they are correct for 1 mini truffle cake (the recipe makes 24).
Do these mini chocolate truffle cakes freeze well?
Yes, Joni – perfectly!
Two questions for you. I have made the Martha Stewart ones a long time ago and I can’t remember if these go in the fridge or not. And two do you use a standard 12 cup muffin pan or a mini 24 cup pan? It looks like you used a regular 12 cup pan in your picture. Thanks!
You can put them in the fridge or leave them a few days on the counter -covered- and they freeze beautifully as well, Dana! I used mini muffin pans for these – the pan in the photo is actually a vintage pan from Brian’s grandma and it holds 8 slightly bigger mini muffins than what is available today. I mix these with a standard mini muffin pan to get the right amount. Hope you enjoy these like we do!!
Thanks so much for your quick reply! I am making these this weekend for a baby shower and the mini size will be perfect!
These sound so delicious – and rich enough that just one should be enough, which is perfect for my eating goals. Thank you for sharing!
oh, yeah… mouthwatering!
Do you know if these freeze well? They look like the perfect thing to have on hand when someone stops by and you say “how about a cup of coffee?”
I.MUST.MAKE.THESE.
Yes, I’m convinced. Pinning.
Ooh! This recipe is one of my favorites. I still have the little card as it appeared in her magazine. After making Martha’s version I adapted it using spelt flour and coconut oil. It worked.
Oooooooh, these look good. I may just have to try these this weekend. There’s not much sugar OR flour in them. Thanks!